Racin' Mason: New Berlin boy, 13, behind the wheel at local dirt tracks

By David Blanchette, Correspondent

Thursday

Jul 5, 2018 at 8:30 PM

He won't be able to legally drive on city streets for almost three years, but Mason Campbell has been witnessed driving up to 80 miles per hour lately in communities like Jacksonville, Lincoln and Quincy.

The 13-year-old old Campbell, nicknamed “Racin' Mason,” began competitively driving full-size winged sprint cars this spring on dirt tracks across central Illinois. Campbell has been racing some form of motorized vehicles since the age of 7, but due to his age he had to seek special permission to race side-by-side with sprint car drivers aged 16 and older.

“It's cool because I know I am one of the youngest people out there running a sprint car,” said Campbell, a New Berlin resident and straight-A student who will enter the eighth grade at New Berlin Junior High School in the fall.

Campbell's 10th sprint car race was at Jacksonville Speedway on June 29. It was a rough night, and he ended up crashing into the wall. Campbell emerged unhurt, but a bent race car frame means he'll have to wait until later this month before he can race again. Other races this season have been more encouraging.

Campbell nearly won a race at the Lincoln Speedway in his first season of racing in the 305 Sprint class, where the cars are powered by 500-horsepower, 305-cubic-inch V-8 engines. But a first-timer's mistake prevented Campbell from getting the coveted first-place trophy.

“It was only my second race in an actual sprint car, and I had the lead by about half the track,” Campbell said. “The track was slick and if you come out of the corner sometimes the tires will just spin, and it glazes the tires over so it's just like driving on ice. There's no undoing that, and the guy in second place passed me.”

Campbell caught the racing bug in a go-kart six years ago and won numerous races before progressing at age 8 to winged go-karts. He then moved on to micro sprint cars, which can reach speeds of 80 miles per hour and are often on the racing lineup along with full-size sprint cars and stock cars at area dirt tracks.

“They scream, it sounds like REEEEEEEE!” Campbell said. “It's fast-paced, you accelerate and you brake a lot to make it around the corner, and if you don't have the car set up right you'll skid.”

Campbell won a micro sprint car feature at the Jacksonville Speedway last year, the highlight of his racing career so far. But it was another 2017 race in Jacksonville that sticks in his memory for two reasons, the first being that Campbell's mother was racing against him in another car.

“I saw her crash and they took her to the hospital. I was hoping that she was all right, and it turned out she was just shaken up a little bit,” Campbell said. “She was more important than the race, but I knew that I had a chance to win it.”

Campbell fought his way to first place when the yellow caution flag was withdrawn and the race resumed. Then the unthinkable happened — he ran out of fuel just shy of the checkered flag.

“It was terrible, because that was with some of the best guys in the nation and running out of fuel I was like 'come on,' because I knew I had it,” Campbell said.

Besides the June 29 crash at Jacksonville Speedway, Campbell wrecked a sprint car during a race in May and rolled a micro sprint car end-over-end seven times a year ago. He walked away from all three accidents with no injuries. The sprint car wrecks were frustrating, but tumbling in the micro sprint car was truly frightening.

“I went black, closed my eyes and just held on,” Campbell said. “It was tough, scary, and hard.”

Mason's mother Amber Campbell, who no longer races, knows what it's like to crash a race car.

“Before Mason got into a sprint car I told him he had to have every piece of safety equipment possible,” Amber Campbell said. “I'm super, super nervous when he goes out there because I know it is a possibility that he can get hurt. But the pride in watching him do something that he enjoys doing is amazing.”

Mason's father Chris Campbell is also a sprint car racer who plans to retire from the track at the end of the year. Father and son had a long talk last weekend following the June 29 race, and Chris Campbell, who “was not super happy” about the crash, said Mason is still committed to racing.

“He's been racing every weekend since he was 7 years old, but I think he's just going through a growing phase,” Chris Campbell said. “Sprint cars are a lot harder to drive than what he's used to. He definitely was doing a good job. He made a couple of rookie mistakes. He's just in a slump.”

“I am worse than his mother. After he wrecked really hard in a micro, I'm a nervous wreck whenever he goes out,” Chris Campbell said. “I don't even want him to break a fingernail. But if that's what he loves doing and he's good at it, we support him knowing the risk.”

“Besides him being born, the best time in my life was the night he won in the micro,” Chris Campbell said. “The night he dropped back to third at Jacksonville and then came back and won it, I did everything but cartwheels in the infield.”

Mason Campbell had to convince many people that he was ready to race sprint cars before an exception could be made in a sport where drivers are 16 years of age or older. The agents who handle each racetrack's insurance needed convincing, but so did the track owners. Jacksonville Speedway track promoter Ken Dobson held a private session for Mason last year to judge his readiness.

“We spent an evening with Mason making laps, making sure that he had control of the car,” Dobson said. “It was obvious that he was ready and would do just fine by taking that step, even at his age. Mason has proven himself to be a driver that the older drivers don't have a concern racing with.”

“The fans always love watching young racers develop and grow,” Dobson said. “When someone who is younger like Mason wins a race, and they get out of the car and the fans are able to see just how young the driver was, it really adds to the fans' enthusiasm and makes it more exciting.”

Mason has two brothers and a sister who watch him compete when they can. He likes to fish when he's not racing or help his father work on the sprint car. Mason prefers dirt track racing to what he terms the “boring” asphalt racing of NASCAR and would like to eventually compete in the World of Outlaws series, what many consider to be the ultimate sprint car competition.

But at 13, he's more interested in the trophy than the young women who typically present the awards at race tracks.

“Dad has kind of stuck it in my mind that girls can cause me a lot of trouble and that would ruin my racing career,” Mason Campbell said. “He tells me 'if you have a girlfriend you won't have time to work on race car.'”

Contact David Blanchette through the metro desk: 788-1401.

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